Tuesday, June 28, 2011

While the "Vote for Change" campaign doesn't have an official position on which less democratic system they'd prefer instead of MMP, they are pretty keen on the Supplementary Member system. Here's Shirtcliffe-frontman Jordan Williams praising it this morning:

SM allowed allowed [sic] the big parties to bring in their technical experts such as (former finance minister) Michael Cullen or (Attorney-General) Chris Finlayson, rather than "seat-warming backbenchers who keep their party bosses happy under MMP."

This is pure doublethink. SM uses exactly the same list system and selection method as MMP; all that changes is whether the list seats are allocated to give overall proportionality or not. This is apparently bad when it leads to democracy, and good when it does not. And we're expected to take this seriously?

Next up: scary anti-MMP ads with faceless list MMPs with paper bags on their heads, pushing for a change to SM so that Don Brash doesn't have to risk defeat in an electorate.